A Little More Trouble COMPLETE
by FullMoonDreams
Summary: Peter will win a bet if Sirius and Remus come out before the rest of the school. Trouble is, they know. So Peter and James have to find a way to make them. RLSB. Slash. Sequel to Double Trouble. Formerly titled Catch a Quaffle.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I own nothing, duh.

Author Notes: This is the sequel to Double Trouble and although it would be nice if you read that first I'll be honest and say it isn't necessary so you don't have to if you don't want to.

**Warnings**: Contains **Slash** (Remus/Sirius). This story is more graphic than the previous one though there won't be anything more graphic than what is in this first chapter. It also contains some **strong language. **If you don't like it don't read it. Flames will be ignored.

* * *

**_Catch a Quaffle_**

Remus Lupin walked bristly down the corridor, scanning the notes from the Arithmancy lesson he'd missed during the full moon, and taking no notice whatsoever of the tall, dark and sexy marauder waiting for him.

Of course, Sirius Black was not someone you could ignore that easily. You could try, but you were doomed to fail before you even started.

Remus wasn't intentionally ignoring Sirius but the result was the same as if he had been. A hand reached out at him as he passed the other boy and a moment later he found himself pinned against an extremely uncomfortable shelf in a dark room.

"Sirius, is that you?" Remus asked, momentarily too stunned to realise what an abysmally stupid question it was.

"I certainly hope so," Sirius replied before his mouth closed over Remus's.

"Did you miss me?" he asked, and Remus didn't need to see his face to know that it was currently sporting a wide grin.

"You haven't been waiting around in the corridors for the whole of the last hour, have you?" Remus asked.

"Only half an hour," Sirius confirmed with a chuckle. "I've not seen you since breakfast after all and it's not like I can ravish you in the Great Hall with the whole school looking on. Anyway stop avoiding the question and tell me that you missed me."

"I missed you," Remus dutifully replied. "Now come on or we'll be late for Transfiguration."

"Wouldn't you rather stay here?" Sirius whispered in his ear just before his tongue flicked the lobe.

"Why are we in here anyway?" Remus asked. His eyes were growing accustomed to the dark and he could now see that they were in the Quidditch supply room.

"Because there are a couple of Hufflepuffs making out in the empty Charms room," Sirius replied in between planting kisses down every inch of Remus's neck that he could access. "This place is nice and cosy and there's no one to see us."

"Cosy isn't the word I'd choose," Remus muttered. "It's damn uncomfortable and there's a broomstick sticking in my butt."

"Ah Remus, you flatter me," Sirius purred.

"Idiot!" Remus retorted. "It's one of the school's Cleansweeps."

"Oh it's definitely a Firebolt," Sirius whispered as he pulled Remus into a close hug.

"We really should get to class," Remus insisted.

"What class is that?" Sirius asked before he arrived back at Remus's mouth.

"Um," Remus mumbled after Sirius had let him up for air.

"Don't think I know that class," Sirius said before kissing him again. "No one will notice if we skip it."

Remus tried to remember what class he was supposed to be going to but the last functioning brain cells he had weren't thinking much more than_ Sirius kiss more_.

Thankfully Sirius appeared to have a few more faculties about him and at least had the presence of mind to notice the sounds of students outside the door.

"Quick," he whispered as he pulled Remus around one of the shelves and behind the hangers of Ravenclaw Quidditch robes. The light came on a few seconds later and the students poured into the room.

The back of the robes wasn't the most spacious place for two sixth years to try to hide and Remus had to use both his hands to hold the robes in place so that they wouldn't be seen by the first years who'd just returned from their morning flying lesson.

Remus felt Sirius snake an arm around his waist and he leaned back into the other boy. Sirius shifted his position slightly and whispered in his ear "that's not a Cleansweep you can feel."

Remus bit his lip to avoid either laughing at Sirius's joke or moaning in pleasure at his closeness.

Two of the first years were horribly close by and Remus hoped rather than believed that Sirius wouldn't do anything that would risk drawing unwanted attention.

"Right first years, put your broomsticks away and be quick about it," Madam Hooch called out.

Remus was just about ready to breathe a sigh of relief that the students would soon be gone when he felt Sirius's hand, that had originally been holding tight around his waist, inch its way lower to unbuckle his belt and unfasten his trousers. Sirius, clearly anticipating his gasp put his left hand over Remus's mouth at the same time as the right one slipped into his trousers.

Remus didn't know whether to let go of the robes to slap Sirius's hand away or not. If someone happened to be looking in their direction when he let go of them they'd see far more than they bargained for.

Finally the students had put their Quidditch gear away and Madam Hooch had departed to her office or wherever else the teachers disappeared to when they weren't teaching.

Sirius removed his hand from over Remus's mouth and leaning round he replaced it with his mouth.

"That was close," Remus breathed.

"Rubbish," Sirius replied. "When we officially come out it'll be on my terms…"

"Ahem!"

"…on_ our_ terms then."

"Thank you."

"And not because Hooch and a bunch of goggling first years caught me with my hands down your pants in the Quidditch supply room."

"So you do have a plan for how we announce this to the school?" Remus asked curiously.

"Might have," Sirius replied with a smirk.

"I'll take that as a 'yes' then," Remus grinned.

"So do you want to go to class?" Sirius asked. "Or would you rather we just carry on with this?" He held Remus still as he whispered his questions in his ear. His right hand was now tugging at the buttons of his shirt and when Sirius kissed him again any hope Remus had of even remembering what lesson he was missing disappeared completely.

"Stay here," Remus gasped as soon as he'd got his breath back, before spinning round to pin Sirius up against the wall and exact his revenge for the previous ten minutes of torture.

"Hell Moony," Sirius gasped in turn in a few minutes later. "And here's me thinking you weren't that type of guy."

"You ain't seen nothing yet," Remus quipped. "I'm going to make you beg Padfoot."

Sirius laughed out loud for a few seconds before Remus kissed him again.

* * *

Sirius and Remus arrived in the Great Hall for lunch and sank down on the bench opposite James and Peter.

"You missed Transfiguration," Peter said between bites of steak and kidney pie.

Sirius shrugged and grinned. He cast a sideways look at Remus and recognised the look of remembrance. He grinned even wider at the knowledge that he'd actually managed to make Moony forget which lesson he was supposed to be in.

"Oh well," Remus commented. "I doubt McGonagall noticed."

"I think you'll find I _did_ notice," Professor McGonagall announced from behind them. "And what excuses do you and Mr Black have for missing my class this morning?"

"I forgot," Remus muttered, flushing bright red under the formidable glare of the head of Gryffindor.

"Forgot?" McGonagall repeated in disbelief. "Well a summary of everything we've covered so far this year, on my desk by Friday, should ensure that you don't forget anything else. And you Mr Black? Did you forget too?"

"No Professor," Sirius replied. "I got side-tracked."

"Side-tracked with what?"

"A gentleman doesn't kiss and tell," Sirius replied in a loud whisper.

"Spare me," McGonagall muttered. "A summary, by Friday, of everything we've covered so far this year from you too please. And don't think of copying Mr Lupin's either."

With a last sharp glare at the two boys McGonagall stalked towards the staff table.

"I'm quite insulted I tell you," Sirius announced in a haughty tone. "She doesn't tell Moony not to copy off my work and I'm better at Transfiguration than he is."

Remus patted him consolingly on the arm as he nodded sympathetically and tried not to laugh. James didn't even bother to try to stifle his giggles and was pounding on the table with his fists as he roared with laughter. "I can't believe you said that to her," he spluttered.

Sirius grinned as he pulled the bowl of mashed potatoes towards him. "At least we didn't get detention."

"After you with the mash," Remus said as he handed the vegetables over the table to Peter.

Sirius nodded and passed the bowl to Remus with a smile.

It was something they'd done hundreds of times over the last five and a half years. The simple passing of a bowl or a jug at mealtimes. Everyone did it. There wasn't anything special about it. But Sirius still felt himself blushing as his fingers brushed against Remus's. Remus smiled back at him as he took the bowl and he felt his grin widen in response. It was a reflex action; he could no sooner have stopped it than he could have stopped himself from breathing.

He looked back across at James and Peter who were both smirking knowingly at him. He tried to frown at them both but he failed completely and instead turned his gaze elsewhere. It was then that he noticed them.

It's not like he'd not seen the same students at hundreds of other meals. It was just that he'd never seen so many of them apparently watching his every move. Or rather watching his and Remus's every move with baited breath.

He swept his gaze over the Ravenclaw table, wondering which of the fifth year girls was the one who was running the pool on when he and Remus would come out.

It was one of the reasons why he wasn't bothered about how the other students might react when he and Remus decided to go public with their relationship. Apparently most of the school had known or suspected that they had a thing for each other since fourth year. It had turned out that Sirius and Remus were the only ones who _hadn't_ realised. At least not until a magical cock up that had only recently been rectified. They'd finally admitted they had feelings for each other the previous morning and had been making up for lost time ever since.

They'd have come out to the rest of the school but for one single reason.

That reason was currently sitting across the table from Sirius, gesturing subtly towards the entrance to the Great Hall.

Unfortunately Wormtail had learned all he knew about subtlety from James Potter which meant that he was frantically jerking his head towards the doorway with a frequency that would give him whiplash if he didn't stop soon.

"Something wrong with your neck Wormtail?" asked Remus innocently.

"Don't you have something you want to be doing right now?" Peter replied with another jerk of his head and a wink.

"You mean besides eat lunch?" Remus questioned, his eyes widening as though surprised that anyone would think he'd want to be doing anything else at all.

"You_ know_ what I mean," Peter whispered as he leaned over the table, his tie trailing into his plate and dripping gravy across the table. "It's the first of February on Sunday."

"Yes, I know," Remus replied. "What of it?"

"Sunday will be too late," Peter hissed. "I've got January."

Sirius snickered. It was ironic that of all the students who'd placed bets on the date of the Sirius Black Remus Lupin coming out party, Peter Pettigrew was the one who had the month when they'd finally got together.

It wasn't that they were going to wait until February and deprive their friend of his winnings. It was just that they were going to wait until the last day of the month so they could let him stew a bit. He, James and countless others had had a great deal of amusement at the expense of Sirius and Remus over the last couple of years. It was time for a little payback.

"Don't know what you're talking about," Remus replied. "What about January? You know what he's on about Padfoot?"

"Dunno," Sirius mumbled around a mouthful of vegetables.

"I _know_ you know about the pool." Peter glared at Remus, then Sirius and then Remus again. "Would it kill you to just snog once in front of the rest of the school so I can get my winnings?"

Sirius looked around the table and saw that they had quite an audience. Several nearby girls had their mouths open in hopeful anticipation of some boy-boy action. He wondered whether to ask them to close their mouths as the sight of their half-eaten lunches was putting him off his own meal.

"James," Remus said as he took a swig of pumpkin juice. "Have you been spiking Wormtail's juice with Firewhiskey again?"

"They're doing it deliberately to annoy you," James whispered loudly to Peter. "Pestering them isn't going to work."

"You got any better ideas?" Peter muttered.

James grinned wickedly.

Sirius grimaced at the look on his friend's face. Peter's pestering was easy to deal with, James's plotting was another matter entirely.

* * *

Sirius looked at the clock on his bedside table and frowned. Ten past one in the morning and he'd not had a wink of sleep. From the tossing and turning of Remus in his own bed on the other side of the room he was sure that he was as wide-awake as himself.

They were both being deprived of sleep by the same problem.

That problem being the persistent whispering of James Potter and Peter Pettigrew. They'd been at it for over two hours. Their discussion had been at that annoying volume that was too loud to ignore, but too quiet to make out what they were saying. He'd have joined in the conversation since it was keeping him awake but the moment he'd sat up in bed the whispering duo had clammed up. He'd turned over to try to sleep once more, only for the whispering to start again.

"Padfoot? Moony?" James suddenly called out. "You guys awake?"

Sirius shut his eyes. He knew that tone of voice didn't bode well for him. The sound of a fake snore from Remus's bed told him that he'd had the same idea.

"We know you're both awake," Peter said. "We've all been sharing a dorm long enough to know that Sirius's snores are louder than the Hogwart's Express and Remus growls in his sleep instead."

"Do I?" Remus asked as he sat up and lit the lamp.

"Sorry, they're right," Sirius replied with a shrug. "It's kind of cute though."

"Oh." Remus smiled as he digested this new information.

"Well aren't you going to tell me how cute my snores are?" Sirius asked after a few moments.

"No, sorry," Remus replied without the vaguest hint of meaning it.

"Me and Wormtail have come to a decision," James said, eager to steer the conversation back on course. "We've figured out why you two can't sleep." He nodded as though enormously pleased with whatever breakthrough he'd made.

"Really?" Remus asked in his most sarcastic voice. "Do enlighten us."

"Now, now, Moony," Sirius chided. "We should congratulate the insensitive gits for realising that their yapping all night prevents other people in the room from getting any kip."

"It's sexual tension," James announced with a firm nod.

"No, I don't think it is," Sirius assured him. "The only thing preventing me getting to sleep tonight is you two nattering away like a couple of old biddies."

James ignored him. "You two have been checking each other out for over two years now. That's a long time. It's understandable that you'd be…"

"Horny," Peter interrupted.

"Yeah," James continued. "And we don't want you two to think that you can't…er…you know…er…do it…you know…because of us."

Sirius wondered whether it would be worth winding James up by pretending not to know what he was talking about but he was damn tired and really didn't want to drag things out any longer than necessary. "Prongs? Go back to bed and shut the hell up," he muttered before laying back down and pulling a pillow over his head.

Unfortunately James ignored him and continued to assure Remus that if he wanted to sleep in the same bed as Sirius then he and Peter had no problems with that at all.

"Prongs?" Remus asked, waiting for a moment for James to wind up his speech so that he had his undivided attention. "Firstly I don't '_do it'_ on a first date, and since Sirius and I haven't been on a single date so far the chances of him getting into my pants are pretty slim."

Sirius snorted as he recalled the events in the Quidditch supply room and a moment later a pillow hit him.

"Secondly," Remus continued. "If you're thinking that this will win Peter his money then you're sorely mistaken since the dorm isn't that public. Thirdly…"

"Moony?" Sirius called out. "Any chance you can hurry up and finish this list so some of us in desperate need of sleep can get some shut eye?"

"Thirdly," Remus repeated. "Even I was inclined to _'do it'_ with Sirius any time soon it wouldn't be with you two pervs in the same room listening to us."

"We thought you'd use a silencing charm," Peter piped up. "Sirius was practising them yesterday evening."

"Thanks for reminding me," Sirius said as he sat up once more and grabbed his wand off the bedside table. "_Silencio_," he said as he pointed the wand at Peter before repeating the spell on James.

He smiled across at Remus. "Night Moony."

"Night Padfoot," Remus replied.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Remus stood in the prefects' bathroom as he waited for the room to clear after the usual early morning rush. Thankfully he had a free morning and was able to dawdle as long as he wanted.

"See you in Defence," Lloyd, one of the sixth year Hufflepuff prefects called back as he left the room.

Remus breathed a sigh of relief that the room was finally empty and began to unbutton his pyjama top. He was just about to remove the garment when he realised he was being watched. He looked around the room but no one had come in. That left only one explanation.

"Sirius?" he asked. "I know you're here so you might as well take off the cloak."

"Damn," Sirius muttered as he revealed his presence. "How did you know I was here?"

"Who else would it be?" Remus asked with a grin as he re-buttoned his shirt. "So why are you spying on me? And how did you get in here?"

"I got in here with the password," Sirius replied with a casual shrug. "I just had to wait until someone came along and said it. And I wasn't really spying on you."

"Were so."

"Were not."

Seeing that the conversation had quickly descended into the realms of childishness, Remus shook his head and smiled. "So what are you doing in here?"

"I woke up early today and overheard Prongs and Wormtail plotting. I thought I'd better let you know so that you're forewarned."

"And spying on me in the bathroom was just an added bonus?" Remus asked.

"Yes," Sirius nodded. "I mean no…it was…erm…well…I..."

Remus felt a smile tugging at his lips as he tried to frown in disapproval at his friend. "So what are they plotting?" he asked curiously.

"They're planning on making you jealous," Sirius replied. "You remember Abby? That little Ravenclaw Peter dated last year?"

"The one he tried to keep secret by saying she was helping him study?"

"That's the one. Well Peter and James are going to persuade her to come on to me at some point today in the hopes that you'll get jealous and make a scene."

"A scene that would no doubt lead to a public display of affection and Peter winning his money." Remus shook his head and smiled. "I really thought James and Peter would have thought of something better than that. Since when do I like making a scene?"

"You just have to make sure you don't today," Sirius said. "No matter what she does. Apparently Peter promised to give her a portion of his winnings if they succeed."

"They won't. I think I can manage to restrain myself," Remus commented dryly. "So what are your plans for the morning?"

"Well James is in Care of Magical Creatures and Peter was heading down to the library, so you have me all to yourself."

"I still have my Defence essay to finish, so I'll be heading to the library myself."

"You mean you'd rather go to the library than hang out with me in the dorm?" Sirius pouted and gave an exaggerated sniff.

"Have you finished your essay?" Remus asked.

"Not even started it," Sirius admitted with a grin. "It's not due until this afternoon."

Remus rolled his eyes and shook his head in despair. "It shouldn't take me too long to finish my essay. I just need to check a few facts in the library and write a conclusion. I'll meet you back in the common room when I'm done. You head back there now and you may get your own work done before lunch."

"I'd rather stay here with you," Sirius replied with a grin.

"I'll just bet you would. I'll meet you back in the Tower."

"Spoilsport," Sirius replied with a laugh though he made no attempt to leave.

"Weren't you listening to what I said to James last night?" Remus asked. "If you need a reminder, it was that you weren't getting into my pants that easily."

"I seem to recall that I've already been _in_ your pants," Sirius grinned.

"You_ know_ what I mean," Remus replied.

"I could scrub your back for you," Sirius suggested mischievously as he advanced on Remus and pulled him into his arms.

"If I get a detention for not doing that essay, I'm blaming you," warned Remus just before Sirius's lips came down on his own.

* * *

"I take it you two didn't have a very productive morning," James commented as he watched Sirius and Remus frantically scribbling on their parchments in between taking bites of food.

"Sod off Prongs," Remus muttered as he flicked through a book before turning back to the parchment.

"Such language," James laughed. "I think Padfoot is becoming a bad influence on you."

Sirius kicked James under the table without looking up from his essay.

"So what_ were_ you doing all morning?" Peter asked with a wink. "And_ where_?"

"Done!" Remus suddenly declared with an audible sigh of relief. "Now what are you two blathering on about, or do I need to ask?"

"Just wondering what you've been doing all morning instead of homework," James whispered. "Come on you can tell your best mates, can't you? There's no one else in earshot."

Remus looked around the Great Hall and saw that James was right. "Well," he began. "First we made out in the prefects' bathroom for a while…" James's face turned slightly pale, he'd clearly not imagined that either Remus or Sirius would be forthcoming with details of what they'd been getting up to. "…then we went back to the tower for an hour or two. We had the common room all to ourselves and you wouldn't believe how comfortable that rug in front of the fire is. But a couple of seventh years nearly walked in on us so we went up to the dorm after that. You might want to change your sheets by the way…."

"What?" James squeaked. "I thought you two weren't…?"

"Sirius can be _very _persuasive," Remus confided. "And he has so much stamina, he can go for _hours_. That's why we ended up making use of _all_ the beds in the room. Then we went back to the prefects' bathroom to check out the whirlpool function of the bath."

"The prefects' bath has a whirlpool?" Peter asked.

"It has a massage mode as well but we didn't really need that one," Remus whispered. "Sirius is _really_ good with his hands, not to mention his mouth and tongue. And did you know he could hold his breath underwater for nearly ten minutes without coming up for air?"

"Enough!" James hissed. "I don't think we need to know anything else. Right Wormtail?"

Peter nodded mutely.

"If you didn't want to know, you shouldn't have asked," Remus pointed out calmly.

"I'm going to fetch my essay from the common room," James said. "Coming Wormtail?"

"You're evil," Sirius whispered to Remus as soon as the other two boys had left the table. "You do know they actually believed all that rubbish?"

"Serves 'em right for being nosy buggers," Remus whispered back. "Besides, they wouldn't believe us if we said we'd spent most of the morning just talking."

"Pity you made that up about the bath's functions," Sirius grinned. "We could have had some fun with those."

"That wasn't made up," Remus replied. "The bath _does_ have whirlpool and massage functions as well as foam, bubbles, oils and loads of stuff. I've never tested it all out though I accidentally hit the whirlpool lever once when I meant to refresh the water instead. So when James and Peter sneak in there to check if I was lying – and you know they will – they'll find that the bath is exactly as I described. As I said, it'll teach them to ask personal questions they don't really want answering."

Sirius shook his head and laughed as he turned back to his essay once more.

"Hi, Remus," a soft voice cooed, causing Sirius to look up from his parchment again.

"Hi Abby," Remus replied with a smile. "If you're looking for Peter, he's just gone back to the common room. He'll be heading to Defence soon."

"I wasn't looking for Peter," Abby purred. "I was looking for_ you_."

"You were?" Sirius asked in surprise. "You weren't looking for me?"

"Why would I be looking for you?" Abby asked with a frown of confusion. "No I was looking for my Remmie."

"Excuse me?" Remus asked.

"Your Remmie?" Sirius asked with a frown of his own. He looked towards the door and saw that either Peter and James had made it to the common room and back in record time for the performance, or they hadn't really left at all. He suspected the latter.

Sirius looked around the room and saw that once again he and Remus were the focus of attention as everyone waited to see what they would do.

"There's a Hogsmeade weekend coming up soon," Abby was saying with another bright smile towards Remus. "I thought maybe we could go together and check out Madam Puddifoot's new menu?" She fluttered her eyelashes rapidly as she inched her way further along the bench and practically onto Remus's lap.

"Maybe," Remus replied with a shrug. He was too embarrassed to admit that he had lost his Hogsmeade privileges for the rest of the year. "I've not made any plans yet and Puddifoot's new menu can't be any worse than the last, can it?"

Abby smiled again. Wrapping one arm around his shoulders and with the other hand resting casually on Remus's thigh they looked like the perfect couple. Sirius felt himself scowling at the sight and he couldn't stop the sudden stab of jealousy.

He forced himself to look away from the sight of Abby fawning all over Remus and instead shot a glare to the gloating James and Peter. He'd misunderstood what he'd overheard when he'd first woken up. Of course Remus wouldn't get jealous and make a fuss. That wasn't Remus. James and Peter knew that as well as he did. James also knew that Sirius _was_ the type to turn into the green-eyed monster at the slightest provocation.

He looked back at Abby and Remus and saw that she was being extremely provoking. The fingers of one hand were casually twirling a lock of his hair and she was whispering quietly into his ear. Sirius moved closer to Remus himself, stopping only when his left thigh was lying flush against Remus's right.

Abby smirked at him as she continued to play with Remus's hair.

"I think you're bothering my friend," Sirius said pointedly.

"I don't hear Remmie complaining," purred Abby, planting a kiss on Remus's cheek before leaning her head on his shoulder.

"That's because _Remus_ is too polite to say anything."

"You're sure it's not that it's bothering _you_?" Abby questioned with a deceptively innocent smile.

The collective gasp of half the school was enough to remind Sirius of how much money the students had been wagering on him and Remus and he bit his tongue rather than reply.

"I don't mind if you have a bit of a thing for Remmie," Abby continued. "He's so adorable and sweet and kind and funny and sexy and…"

"And sitting right here," Remus interrupted, his face reddening with embarrassment.

"His name's _Remus_," Sirius snapped.

"He doesn't mind being called Remmie," Abby replied as she gave Remus's leg a squeeze.

"I can speak for myself you know," Remus muttered as he glared first at Abby, then at Sirius.

"Oooh, a lovers' quarrel," a heckler called from the Hufflepuff table.

"I think they need to kiss and make up," another voice called out.

"Which ones?"

"Remus and Sirius, of course!"

"They_ need_ to get together soon."

"They're so cute together."

"Abby, push off and leave the boys alone!"

"Yeah, can't you see they're perfect for each other?"

"Oh my, check out Sirius! He's blushing!"

Sirius felt his face growing warmer by the second and he ducked his head.

"Hey Becky! Who's got January?"

Sirius looked up at that and looked towards the girl who now had the attention of the room. The brunette pulled a small book from her bag and after flipping through the pages she announced that Peter Pettigrew was the one who stood to win.

"Isn't Abby Peter's ex?" someone called out.

"No fair!"

"It's a set up to make it look like they're together!"

"Cheaters!"

"Are they a couple?"

"What counts as a public display of affection?"

"Does their embarrassment count?"

"Quiet everyone!" Becky called out as she climbed onto the table. She cast a quick glance over to the staff table and saw that they had all left for their afternoon classes. "Sirius, Remus, do you know about the pool?" she asked as she turned to face them.

"You can't tell them about it!" a voice called out from the Slytherin table.

"We already know about it," Sirius announced. "At least we know a bit about it."

"Who told you?" Becky asked calmly as she raised her hands for silence.

"I did," Lily Evans announced from further down the table.

"Under the terms of your bet that means you lose your money," Becky stated.

"I had June next year so I was going to lose anyway," Lily replied with a shrug.

Becky nodded and made a note in her book before turning back to Sirius and Remus. "The bets are all on when you two are or were going to get together and come out before the rest of the school. By come out before the rest of the school, we mean that you must engage in a public display of affection together and it must be romantic in nature."

"Why not just say they need to snog?" a snickering voice called out.

Becky frowned in the general direction of the voice before continuing. "Peter," she called out, scanning the room for the boy.

"Here," he called and waved from the doorway.

"Sending your ex to hit on one of the guys isn't exactly fair play," she told him firmly.

"There's nothing in the rules against it," he argued.

"Which is why your bet will stand…for the moment." Several students groaned at this.

"What's to stop Sirius and Remus from simply locking lips in order to win Peter his money?" someone else asked. "They're best friends."

Becky stood still for a moment as she thought things through. Finally she seemed to come to a decision and called Lily and a number of other students from various houses towards her. They held a whispered conference that lasted several minutes before they finally seemed to reach an agreement. Becky gave a final nod and climbed back up onto the table.

"Firstly it has been decided that the embarrassment of Sirius and Remus does not count as a public display of affection for the purposes of the bet. Secondly it has been decided that if either Peter, Abby or James should prove to be the winners of this bet then a rider will be attached to it just in case this is all a set up. Their winnings will be held until such time as it can be determined by those of us who have just spoken as to whether or not our two boys are really a couple or not."

"And how exactly do you plan on figuring that out?" Peter asked.

"We can't tell you that," Becky stated. "But it won't take long to find out, right Lily?"

Lily nodded and Becky smiled round the room. "Finally, there will be no more sending girls, or boys, to hit on either Sirius or Remus in the hopes it will prompt a reaction from them. We've decided that the aforementioned public display must be unprompted, spontaneous and not assisted by any magic whatsoever."

"That means that charmed mistletoe is out of the question as well," Lily called out. "I heard you plotting that earlier Potter, so you'd better think again."

Even half way across the room Sirius could hear the muttered "damn" from James at Lily's words.

Thankfully it seemed that Becky was now winding up her speech and she climbed down just in time for McGonagall to arrive back in the Great Hall in search of the fourth years who should have been in her classroom some ten minutes previously.

"You finished your essay?" Remus asked as Sirius crammed his parchment and quill into his bag and slung it over his shoulder.

Sirius shook his head. "I'll finish it off in class and borrow your notes for the lesson later."

"You're terrible," Remus chided him affectionately.

"Ah, you love me really," Sirius whispered in his ear as they made their way to class.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Remus!"

The voice was calling at several decibels from a couple of floors below him and Remus leaned over the railings of one of the moving staircases to see who it was that was so desperate for his attention.

"Hold it right there! Don't you move a muscle!"

Remus frowned as he looked down to see the blonde curly haired seventh year girl bolting up the stairs towards him. She swore loudly and succinctly as the staircase she was on changed direction and she was suddenly going the wrong way. It didn't slow her down for long though. Charlene Grahams seemed to move at a breakneck speed both on and off the Quidditch pitch and no one in Gryffindor had been surprised when she'd made captain the previous year. Her early morning practices were frequent and brutal and Remus was grateful he was not on the team. He was especially thankful for his non-team status whenever he had to listen to James and Sirius stumble out of their beds in the pre-dawn light. Many times he'd snuggled back under the covers, secure in the knowledge that he could lie in for another hour before he had emerge.

Charlene was the only one on the team who didn't seem to mind the early morning starts and Remus often found himself smiling at her shouts of praise or censure when the team returned to the tower. He was grateful never to have found himself on the wrong side of her sharp tongue, unlike James and Sirius. Their most recent tongue-lashing had been the previous term when they had thought it would be amusing to put a spell on all the team brooms so that they left trails of red and gold smoke behind them. That the brooms would catch fire had been something they hadn't even considered.

Remus wondered if Charlene was looking for his friends after some new misguided prank and was relieved that he had no idea where the rest of the marauders were at this particular moment in time.

"Remus!" Charlene gasped as she caught her breath. "I've been calling after you for ages."

"Sorry Charlie," Remus apologised. "I didn't hear you. My mind was elsewhere."

"On Sirius?" Charlene asked with a grin.

Remus rolled his eyes and turned to continue walking towards Gryffindor Tower.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," Charlene assured him as she followed him up the stairs. "I didn't chase you half way round the school just to be nosy. I only wanted to make sure you have a copy of the team's practice schedule, oh and I have an order form for a shop you might find useful. That is useful if you and Sirius are…you know…together."

"What?"

"The team's practice schedule and an order form for a shop my cousin uses," Charlene repeated as she produced several sheets of parchment from the pocket of her robes.

"You want me to pass these on to Sirius and James?" Remus asked in confusion when Charlene pushed the papers into his hands.

"Of course not." Charlene gave him a look that indicated she thought he was a little dense and Remus tried not to feel insulted. "They already have a copy of the schedule though they should have it engraved in their brains by now. This is your schedule with my notations on it for you. And the order form should be self explanatory when you read it."

"Huh?"

"You'll understand when you read it," Charlene repeated as she hurried back in the direction she'd come from. "Just make sure you stick to the schedule. It's for the good of the Gryffindor team."

Remus was about to ask what this was all about but Charlene had already vanished down the stairs. Instead he looked at the schedule in his hands and felt himself flush as he saw what was written on the parchment.

He was still reading and re-reading the parchment when the rest of the marauders found him in a chair in front of the fireplace in the empty Gryffindor common room half an hour later.

"Whatcha got there, Moony?" James asked as he threw himself down in the opposite chair.

"Quidditch schedule," Remus muttered.

"What do you want with that?" Peter asked as he walked the long way around the rug to sit down next to James. "You're not on the team or even the reserves."

"Oh Merlin, she didn't?" Sirius choked out as he reached for the parchment. He scanned the paper and flushed an even deeper shade of red than Remus.

James leaned over to see what the fuss was about and roared with laughter. "She's tightening the reins on you Padfoot," he laughed. "I blame Mitchell."

"Mitchell?" Remus asked curiously as he tried to grab the parchment back from Sirius.

"Sally's boyfriend," Sirius said as though this explained everything.

"What's the team seeker's boyfriend got to do with anything?" Remus asked when it was clear that no more information was forthcoming.

"You remember the last Gryffindor game in fifth year?" James asked and Remus nodded that he did. "Well Sally was a bit…er…off in that game. First time ever she'd failed to catch the snitch and she nearly came off her broom half a dozen times."

"Turned out she and Mitchell had been dating for a few months and the night before the match was their first time together," Sirius continued. "She was so sore from their activities the night before she could barely sit on her broom."

"Well brooms are hardly the most comfortable method of transportation anyway," Peter pointed out.

"Apparently they're even more so for girls who've lost their virginity the night before," James snickered. "Well Sally and Charlie are best mates so Sally confided in her after the match as to what the problem had been. Charlie thought it was a conspiracy as Mitchell's in Hufflepuff and they won the cup last year. So now she's got really strict about stuff like this. She cursed Mitchell the week before our first match this year so that he couldn't…um…perform."

"She's threatened to do the same for the rest of the matches for the year as well," Sirius added. "Mitchell's been hiding out in the Hufflepuff quarters since Sunday so she hasn't caught him this time."

"She will," James interrupted. "Our Charlie is quite persistent. He'll be cursed again before Saturday's game."

"Well apparently she doesn't want Padfoot exhausting himself before the matches or practices either," Remus snorted. "No sex the night before and a list as long as your arm of what she considers to be inappropriate activities that would be detrimental to the team."

"I like the notation on the bottom of page two," James grinned. "She assumes that Sirius tops but if she's wrong she's amending it to no sex for forty eight hours before the match. She's taking no chances this year apparently."

"Good grief," Sirius muttered. "She's even included an order form for a wizard sex shop with various items and spell books marked that she thinks might be useful."

"Like what?" James asked as he tried to grab the paper from the increasingly embarrassed Sirius. He was unsuccessful though and Sirius tossed the order form into the fire where it was quickly reduced to ash.

"We could have used that, you know?" Remus pointed out with a smile. "It's not like I have anything like that stuff hidden in my trunk, and I doubt you have either. And why does she assume _you_ top?"

"Don't know," Sirius replied. "I know we've not discussed it, but I thought you would."

"Does that mean you haven't…?" James's voice trailed off as he realised that Remus had been winding him up the previous day.

"Of course we haven't," Remus muttered and he leaned over to clip James around the ear good-naturedly.

"Hey Wormtail," James turned to look at Peter with a grin. "Looks like you don't have to practice your cleaning charms after all."

"How do you know they're not lying now?" Peter asked, still suspicious. "I'm not taking any chances."

"I promise we cleaned the sheets afterwards," Sirius teased.

"See!" Peter exclaimed.

"I thought you didn't have a problem with us?" Sirius asked with a grin.

"You can do what you like in your own beds but stay the hell out of mine," Peter replied with a glare.

"Would you let us use your bed if we won you your bet?" Sirius smirked.

Peter looked thoughtful for a moment as the desire to win the bet clashed with the desire to not have two of his best friends making love in his bed instead of their own. He finally shook his head. "Did you really use my bed?" he asked. But if he was hoping for a sensible answer then he was sadly mistaken and Sirius continued to tease him that they had been at it everywhere in the dorm, his bed included.

"What about the schedule?" Remus asked in an effort to save Peter for becoming even more anxious about his friends' activities.

"Just ignore it," Sirius replied as he passed the parchment back with a grin.

"I'm serious," Remus argued.

"No, I'm – " Sirius started to say before Remus cut in.

"Don't say it!" he warned.

"Say what?" Sirius asked in mock innocence.

"You know what," Remus muttered. "It wasn't _that_ funny in first year and it's even less amusing after more than five years of the repeated joke. Anyway I don't want to mess up the team's chances of winning the cup."

"You won't," Sirius assured him as he reached over to squeeze his hand. "Charlie's just like any other Quidditch captain, panicking over nothing and seeing problems where there aren't any."

"I just have visions of her appearing in the dorm on the morning of the match to check on the sleeping arrangements," Remus sighed.

"Maybe I should bunk with you to wind her up a bit," Sirius suggested with a wink.

"Do you have a death wish Padfoot?" James asked with a laugh. "She'll play one of the reserves if she thinks you've not had a full eight hours sleep the night before the match."

Remus shook his head and thanked his lucky stars that he wasn't on the Quidditch team or under the scrutiny of their obsessed captain. Then he remembered that he _was _under her watchful eyes and wondered what other unexpected consequences were going to be forthcoming.

* * *

Sirius felt like he was an exhibit in a zoo as he walked into the Great Hall for dinner the day following Becky's tabletop speech. All eyes turned to him as he walked into the room with James on one side of him and Peter on the other. Remus was already seated at the table, having gone to dinner straight from his prefects' meeting. It didn't take a genius to realise that many students in the room had been studying Remus prior to Sirius's own arrival.

"You know, you could just get it over with and kiss him now," Peter pointed out hopefully.

Sirius smiled at him and watched Peter's hopes rise even further. But instead of sweeping Remus up into his arms and kissing him breathless, as tempting as the thought was, Sirius merely dropped down onto the bench beside him and helped himself to a large portion of roast beef. Peter scowled and sat down on the opposite side of the table with James.

The rest of the students in the hall gradually realised that neither of the two boys were going to jump the other's bones and they all turned back to their own meals.

Sirius turned to grin at Remus who smiled back shyly. "Do you feel like we're on display?" Remus whispered and Sirius laughed quietly as he nodded his head.

Dinner continued with Sirius constantly eyeing up Remus and vice versa. It was only by chance that Sirius spotted, out of the corner of his eye, a hand quickly darting across the table before receding again.

"What was that?" he asked as he shot a look at James and Peter, both of whom wore expressions of angelic innocence, and if that didn't set off his internal alarm, nothing would.

"Nothing mate," James replied, his eyes widening in surprise. "Just reaching for a piece of apple crumble."

"Then why don't you have any pudding on your plate?" Sirius asked. "What did you just do?"

"Nothing," James repeated. "You're paranoid."

Sirius frowned forbiddingly at James but a mere glare wasn't enough to crack Prongs when he was trying to pull a prank. He cranked up his glare a few levels but Prongs wasn't breaking eye contact. Neither boy could stand to let the other one out stare him and Sirius was still focused entirely on James when he felt Remus's arm land on his shoulder and his hot breath dangerously close to his ear.

Suddenly the attention of the room was on them once more and Sirius broke eye contact with James to turn to face Remus. One look at the boy told him all he needed to know. "James, what the hell did you put in his drink?" he asked in a voice loud enough to carry throughout the room.

Becky, who'd been watching avidly, was suddenly beside James and glaring down at him. "Have you dosed Remus with a love potion?" she snapped. "That's against the rules and you know it!"

"It's not a love potion," James replied with a grin. "Just a little potion to release inhibitions. Remus isn't doing anything that he doesn't already want to do." He grinned round at their audience who were watching Remus as he ran one hand through Sirius's hair while nibbling and sucking on Sirius's ear, an expression of utter contentment on his face.

"It doesn't count," Becky called out to the room. "Potter's spiked Remus's drink."

"They're cheating again?"

"Ban them from the betting pool!"

"It's not against the rules," James smirked.

"What part of 'unprompted, spontaneous and not assisted by any magic whatsoever' didn't you understand?" Becky asked icily.

"I haven't dosed both of them," James grinned. "Sirius won't be able to resist Remus for much longer…look at him!"

"It still doesn't count," Becky argued. "And your own bet for next September is now forfeit. It's not like you weren't warned yesterday."

A somewhat hesitant Peter looked up and asked about his own bet. Becky glared at him but James promised that the idea had been his and his alone and as such Peter was told that he was on his last warning and one more stunt would see his money gone forever too. She then began relaying the rules of the bet once more.

"Excuse me?" Sirius turned around and saw Charlene standing behind him with an annoyed expression on her face.

"You want something?" Becky asked. It was clear she was somewhat annoyed herself at being interrupted.

"I just wanted to remind Remus about the Quidditch schedule," Charlene explained with a bright smile. "Remus, perhaps you didn't read it all yet but…well…er…there's an early morning practice tomorrow and Sirius can't be distracted so near to a match, so…er…maybe you could stop….er…" She faltered as Remus began undoing the buttons of Sirius's shirt.

"James?" Peter squeaked. "Just how strong was that potion?"

* * *

Ten minutes later and Sirius had somehow managed to get Remus back to the dormitory. James, Peter and Charlene were close on their heels as he tried to fend Remus off.

"Where's the bloody antidote?" Sirius snapped.

"You're sure you don't just want to…?" James began with a wave of his hand towards the bed.

"Remus seems very willing," Peter pointed out, as though Sirius had somehow failed to notice the other boy clinging to him and raining kisses over every inch of exposed skin he could find.

"He might 'seem' willing but I'll be damned if our first time will be with Remus under the influence of some stupid concoction you've slipped into his drink." Sirius glared at James who finally produced a vial of the antidote and passed it to him.

It took some doing to prise Remus's lips off of Sirius long enough to get the antidote down his throat but finally his eyes seemed to clear and he moved away on his own, an embarrassed flush covering his face. Sirius took hold of his hand and sat down on the edge of the bed, pulling Remus alongside him.

"Thank you," Remus whispered quietly.

"You're welcome," Sirius replied, equally quietly. Neither needed to elaborate on what Remus was thanking him for and Sirius knew he'd never have been able to forgive himself if he had taken advantage of Remus in his earlier state. "How much do you remember?"

"Every embarrassing detail," Remus muttered. "Prongs, you might want to get out of here before I decide what I'm going to do to you to get my revenge for this little stunt."

James didn't need any further encouragement and hurried from the room, with Peter following closely behind him. Charlene remained hovering in the doorway.

"You want something Charlie?" Sirius asked, seeing that the girl didn't seem to be in a hurry to leave them alone.

"Our match is just two days away," Charlene explained.

"I know," Sirius replied. "The early morning practices every day for the past week have been a bit of a clue."

"You just said that you and Remus haven't…er…" Charlene gestured towards the bed.

"No, we haven't had sex yet," Sirius confirmed with a touch of impatience in his voice.

"You've got to promise me you'll wait until after the match," Charlene insisted, her eyes pleading.

"If we don't promise, you're going to stick to us like glue, aren't you?" asked Sirius with even more impatience.

"Yep," Charlene nodded with a mischievous grin. "Even if I have to camp out right here in your dorm."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Remus woke on Friday morning to the sound of pounding on the dormitory door. He groaned and pulled his pillow over his head.

"It's not even six o'clock," Sirius called out from across the room. "Unless the castle's on fire, piss off!"

A moment later the door creaked open and Remus emerged just in time to see Charlene poke her head round the door. "You decent?" she chirped.

Remus swore loudly, drawing the attention of both Sirius and Charlene directly onto him.

"Just checking you're sticking to the team rules," Charlene explained before disappearing back out the door. "See you on the pitch in an hour boys."

Remus's day wasn't getting off to a very good start. He tried unsuccessfully to get back to sleep but all too soon the sounds of Sirius and James crawling out of their beds were disturbing him and he reasoned that he might as well get up and start the day.

"You coming to watch the practice?" James asked.

"Thought I'd make a start on my Ancient Runes homework," Remus replied with a shrug.

"You're not going to come and watch me practice?" Sirius asked with mock disappointment.

"What for?"

"Some of the others come to watch their boyfriends and girlfriends practice."

"You'd think they'd have better things to do with their time," Remus muttered as he grabbed his things and started off for the bathroom. He turned at the door to say something about meeting the others in the Great Hall for breakfast but the words died on his lips as soon as he saw Sirius's face. The mock disappointment that had been on his face mere moments ago had now been replaced with the real kind.

"I guess I could stop by for a little while," Remus amended and he found himself being rewarded with a bright smile from Sirius.

"You mean it?" Sirius asked.

"Bloody high maintenance boyfriends," Remus teased before ducking out of the door.

* * *

Watching the practice wasn't nearly as exciting as watching an actual match and Remus was soon freezing cold and getting bored as he sat in the stands on the rainy January morning.

He was actually quite surprised by how many people were watching the practice with him. There were three members of the Hufflepuff team checking out the competition before the following day's game; he could see them taking notes. On the ground were a couple of seventh year Slytherin students who were waiting to use the pitch themselves, in what Remus guessed was a free period. And near to his own seat were a couple of girls who he guessed were dating the two third and fourth year boys on the team. They kept nudging each other and looking over to him and Remus made the mistake of smiling across at them. Seconds later he found each of them seated on either side of him.

"Are you coming to all the practices now that you and Sirius are a couple?" the perky redhead on the right asked.

"Um."

"He's the best chaser on the team," the bubbly brunette on the left said. "My Oscar's keeper." She pointed across the pitch.

"My Matt's beater," the perky redhead gushed. "He's the one over there." Remus nodded dutifully though he privately wondered how he could mistake the two beaters for each other, seeing as how one was the hyperactive female captain and the other a wiry young fourth year boy.

"I'm Chloe," the brunette offered. "And this is Jessie."

Remus nodded politely again. "I'm Remus."

"Oh we know who _you_ are," Jessie giggled. "You're so lucky to be dating a member of the Quidditch team."

"I am?"

"Of course. We're the envy of the whole school. It's like a status symbol."

"Sirius isn't a status symbol," Remus said. "He's…he's my friend."

"_Boy_friend," Jessie corrected.

Remus flushed, even though he knew that most of the school was well aware of their relationship already.

"You guys are soooo cute together," Chloe gushed. "I don't see why you don't come out officially. It's not like everyone doesn't already know anyway."

After that even the always polite Remus tuned out their discussion as he instead watched Sirius and the rest of the team practising for the following day's game. Oh, who was he trying to kid? He was watching Sirius, practically drooling over him in fact, and the rest of the team were merely helping to set the scene. Suddenly he wasn't feeling nearly as chilled as he had been.

He didn't even notice that the practice had finished until Sirius waved to him from the lofty heights of his broom. He smiled back and realised the day was certainly looking up.

* * *

His jubilance lasted a little over half an hour. Then James decided to have another attempt at getting Sirius and Remus to do something publicly romantic. His idea, he explained later, was to trip Sirius, for the ever-observant Remus to catch him, and for nature to take its course.

Unfortunately Remus wasn't quite as observant as James was giving him credit for and Sirius went sprawling onto the ground and there was a sickening crack as his wrist snapped.

"Black!" Charlene screamed as she vaulted over the table to see what had befallen the chaser. "You clumsy git! Get to Madam Pomfrey! Now!"

"I'm not clumsy," Sirius muttered. "I was tripped." He shot a glare at James who had the decency to look ashamed.

"Potter! You flaming idiot!" Charlene yelled as she started to tear strips off the boy.

Remus, crouching down beside Sirius gently helped him to his feet. "Let's get you to the hospital wing." Sirius had gone white and was in obvious pain as Remus led him from the room.

Behind him he could hear several voices raised asking questions like 'does that count?' and 'how can you not say that's romantic?'

* * *

Remus stayed with Sirius in the hospital wing, enjoying the teasing from the other boy about how he was walking on the wild side by skipping class.

Charlene had arrived in the ward soon after they had and was busy interrogating Madam Pomfrey. Finally she seemed satisfied that she'd not have to play one of the reserves and turned back to Sirius. "Try not to do anything else stupid!" she ordered before pulling Remus to one side for a quiet word.

Remus steeled himself for another barrage of orders, complaints and impertinent questions about his sex life.

"Look after him," Charlene said quietly. Then she pecked Remus on the cheek and vanished out of the door.

"Did I just see Charlie kiss you?" asked an astonished Sirius.

"You did," Remus replied as he sat down beside the bed. Sirius patted the bed itself and after a quick glance round the empty ward Remus complied.

"She give you any more orders?"

"Just one."

"Which was?"

Remus grinned at Sirius's suspicious expression. "To look after you."

Sirius grinned and pulled Remus closer with his one good hand. "And are you going to?" he asked quietly.

"Like I'd ever do anything else," Remus whispered as he kissed Sirius softly on the lips.

"Not again!" Madam Pomfrey exclaimed. "You do realise this is the second time this week I've walked in on this exact scene?"

Remus reluctantly pulled back from Sirius before turning to Poppy with a smile. "Actually, last time it was me in the bed instead."

Madam Pomfrey smiled good-naturedly as she chivvied Remus out of the way in order to tend to her patient. "Why do I have more trouble with sixth years than the rest of the school combined?" she muttered under her breath.

* * *

Sirius was soon fixed up, his wrist as good as new, and he had no more excuses for missing class. Something he was determined to complain about, quite vocally, to Remus. The corridor was deserted with most of the students in class and Sirius knew that Remus would do the one thing he could to shut him up…that being he would take his breath away with one of his kisses. And as soon as he stopped kissing him, Sirius intended to start complaining all over again until he got another kiss.

"What if someone sees us?" Remus asked after he'd pulled back from their fourth kiss on their way to the Gryffindor common room.

"Then Peter will win his money," Sirius replied easily.

"I thought we were making him wait until the last possible minute?"

"We are, but I have as little patience as he does." Sirius grinned and pulled Remus into his arms.

"What about Charlie's rules?"

"Stuff her rules," Sirius muttered. "I'm going to get my revenge for that as well."

"You are?" Remus asked curiously.

Sirius grinned but refused to elaborate, no how much Remus tempted him to do so.

Finally they arrived back at Gryffindor Tower, and stumbled through the portrait hole. A couple of seventh years were in the room and looked knowingly at the two boys.

"The dorm," Sirius whispered.

"Charlie's rules," Remus reminded him again.

"Didn't you hear me the first time?" Sirius said as he tugged him towards the stairs. "Stuff her rules."

* * *

"We've missed Defence class," Remus said as he sat up and glanced at the clock on the bedside table. "And lunch."

Sirius stretched out his arm and pulled Remus back down beside him. "I'm not hungry…not for food anyway."

"Charlie will do her nut if she finds out what we've been doing this afternoon."

"She told you take care of me."

"I don't think this is quite what she had in mind. In fact, I suspect this is the exact opposite of what she meant."

"Tender, loving, care," Sirius whispered, punctuating each word with a soft kiss. "Besides, it's not like we've broken her number one rule."

Remus laughed huskily. "Just all the rest of them."

* * *

The two boys finally made it down to the Great Hall for dinner. They only got waylaid once, that by Professor McGonagall who had been notified of their absence from various classes and awarded them a few more detentions to add to the ones they were already doing.

"I've never had as many detentions as we've got this term," Remus muttered as they descended the stairs.

"Me neither," Sirius replied with a grin. "Isn't it great?"

"Not the word I'd have chosen."

Sirius simply grinned again.

The Great Hall was crowded and several people had to scoot down the benches to make room for the two late arrivals. Peter was already there, but it seemed that James was running even later than they had been. He finally arrived around five minutes after Sirius and Remus and the smug look on his face filled Sirius with a wary apprehension.

They were just starting their desserts when he felt Remus subtly nudging him in the arm. He turned to see what he wanted and easily interpreted Remus's expression. He casually looked around the room to see what it was that Remus had spotted but could see nothing out of the ordinary.

"What is it?" he whispered.

"Look at how full the hall is?" Remus hissed back.

"Yeah. So? It's dinner time?"

"But by now students are usually leaving. Not everyone pigs out on dessert like we do. Loads of the students have finished eating but instead of going back to the warmth of their common rooms, they're sitting here talking. _No one_ has left the hall apart from a couple of the teachers."

Sirius frowned as he looked around the room again and saw that Remus was absolutely right.

"What's going on?" he asked quietly.

"I don't know," Remus replied. "But from the glances coming in our direction I would hazard a guess that it has something to do with us."

Sirius looked at James who was busy fiddling with something in his bag in between casting impatient looks at the staff table.

"James is up to something," Sirius whispered. "I recognise the signs."

"Me too."

"I think we should get out of here before the rest of the staff leave."

"Too late." Sirius followed Remus's gaze to the staff table and saw that the last three professors had left their seats and were heading out of the Great Hall.

The moment the door closed behind them James jumped up from his seat. "So who's up for a little film show?" he called out to the room.

"I don't like this," Remus muttered as James launched into a speech about the workings and functions of one of his Christmas presents….a wizard projector that worked in a similar fashion to a muggle video camera. They were expensive, rare and James had supposedly been saving it to record the upcoming Quidditch match.

"I thought you were saving that for the Quidditch match?" Sirius asked.

"I was," James replied with a grin. "But I had to test it out first. Thought I'd kill two birds with one stone, so to speak."

"Test?" Remus squeaked, but James was already walking towards the staff table where he proceeded to set up the projector.

Sirius looked around the room again and saw that for once the focus of the entire student body wasn't on himself and Remus. He would have breathed a sigh of relief at that, but unfortunately any relief was remarkably short-lived as the images that the projector had recorded were suddenly displayed on the wall of the Great Hall.

He vaguely heard Remus swear under his breath as they watched themselves appear on the wall, the projector having picked up the two of them the moment they'd walked into the dorm that morning. For several moments Sirius sat mute as he glared daggers at James.

"Turn it off Potter!" he called across the room but James shook his head with a wicked grin. "Not yet!" he called back.

"Sirius?" Remus whispered quietly, his eyes never leaving the display on the wall. Sirius could tell that he was rigid with fear and apprehension. "Please?"

Sirius looked back at the wall for only a second. He knew exactly why Remus was so nervous and he bolted from his seat to stop James from showing any more of his little film. He made it about two paces before three Gryffindor and two Ravenclaw girls tackled him to the floor.

Through the mass of bodies on top of him Sirius could hear the reactions of the students to James's film.

"Oooh, aren't they a cute couple?"

"So romantic."

"Aaah."

He vaguely heard Becky telling Peter that the public display of affection had to be live and not pre-recorded but he was too busy struggling to escape from his captors to take much notice of his friend's response.

He didn't need to see the images to know what was being shown at any given time. His own memory combined with the reaction of the audience was enough to let him know what was happening. He heard his own voice echoing round the room.

"_I love you Remus Lupin."_

"_I love you too, but…"_

"_But nothing. I love all of you. Even your scars. They're a part of you."_

"_But they're…"_

He knew that he was now unbuttoning Remus's shirt and lovingly tracing each and every one of his scars with first his fingers, then his lips.

Remus, always self conscious about his self inflicted wounds and the lifetime's worth of scars he'd acquired, had been shy about letting Sirius touch them and he could only imagine the mortification he must be feeling right now as the entire school saw them.

He could hear the gasps of the students as he removed Remus's shirt completely. He could hear the whispered speculation of the students and caught the word 'whip' from one of the nearby students.

The girls pinning him down had released their grip and Sirius pulled out his wand and fired off an explosion spell at the projector.

The images on the wall disappeared and the school let out a collective groan. Sirius threw off his captors and scrambled to his feet, launching himself at James.

"I'm sorry." James raised his hands in surrender. "I didn't know. I didn't think."

Sirius didn't think either. He acted on instinct as his fist connected with James's nose.

* * *

Remus had fled from the hall before Sirius had managed to shut down the film.

He didn't know what to think as he sped down corridor after corridor, eventually coming to a halt in one of the empty classrooms. He sank onto the floor in the darkened corner of the room and willed himself to stop shaking.

"Are you all right?" a voice asked from the doorway.

Remus looked up to see Charlene had followed him from the hall.

"Why aren't you back at the film show?" he asked in a tone so unlike his own the girl looked momentarily startled.

"I'm not into voyeurism," Charlene replied as she sat down on the floor beside Remus.

"Looks like you're the only one in the school who isn't," Remus muttered.

"Did James know?" she asked quietly.

"About my scars or about what we'd been doing earlier?"

"Either, both."

"Yes and probably."

"I can kick him off the team for you if you like?" Charlene suggested. "Demote him to reserves or something?"

"You'd do that?" Remus asked in surprise.

"Well I'd rather not," Charlene admitted ruefully. "Especially if Sirius isn't going to be in a fit state to play tomorrow either. Please tell me you two didn't…or at least that you didn't…"

Remus, despite everything, felt a smile tugging at his lips and laughter bubbling up within him.

"Please tell me…I have to know…."

"Sirius will be perfectly capable of riding a broom tomorrow," Remus assured her with a smile.

"So should James," Sirius announced from the doorway.

"How did you find us?" Charlene asked.

"I have my ways," Sirius smirked and Remus caught the telltale glimpse of the Marauders' Map in the pocket of his robes.

"What do you mean about James?"

"He's gone to the hospital wing to get his nose fixed. I think I broke it." Sirius shrugged as he rubbed the knuckles of his right hand.

"You didn't?" Charlene scrambled to her feet and ran for the door. Remus didn't need to ask whether Sirius was telling the truth, he knew Sirius well enough to tell when he was lying and he had no doubt that James was indeed seeking out the ministrations of Madam Pomfrey.

"You're going to give her a nervous breakdown before the end of the year," Remus accused.

Sirius shrugged and took the place next to Remus that Charlene had recently had. He put his arm around the other boy and pulled him close. "I'm sorry I couldn't stop the film before I did."

"Do you think any of them have guessed what I am?" Remus whispered.

Sirius couldn't help but laugh. "I doubt it," he spluttered. "From what I could hear they all assumed you got the scars in the bedroom."

"They what?" Remus squeaked.

"They don't suspect you're a werewolf. That's the important thing."

"But they think I…we…they…oh Merlin!" Remus wondered how he'd ever find the courage to face the rest of the school again, but one look at Sirius told him that at least he wouldn't be alone.

* * *

"You coming to watch the match this afternoon?" Sirius asked as he threw himself across Remus's bed with a grin.

"Have I missed a match yet?" Remus asked.

"Yes," Sirius pouted. "You missed my second match ever. I was soooo hurt."

"It was on the day of the full moon," Remus pointed out as he poked Sirius in the ribs to encourage him to move off of his books.

"Excuses, excuses," Sirius teased. "But you are coming to see me play this afternoon?"

"I guess I can fit it into my busy schedule," Remus sighed. "What position do you play again?"

"Git!" Sirius said with laugh as grabbed Remus's shirt and pulled him on top of him.

"Shouldn't you be out warming up with the rest of the team?" Remus asked.

"I can warm up here instead," Sirius replied as he flipped Remus over and straddled him.

"What if James or Peter come back?" Remus asked as he wound his arms around Sirius's back.

"James is working on his broom, not to mention avoiding me, and Peter's working on Mandy from Hufflepuff. They'll be gone for hours."

"Charlene will kill me if I exhaust you before the match," Remus pointed out with a grin.

"She won't mind as long as we win."

"In that case, what did you have in mind?"

Sirius didn't reply but simply pressed his mouth over Remus's and slipped his tongue into the other boy's mouth. He groaned silently as he felt Remus's tongue brush against his own and he deepened the kiss even more. When he finally pulled back he looked into Remus's eyes for several long moments, seeing nothing but love and desire lingering in their chocolate brown depths.

"This afternoon," Sirius whispered as he planted a soft kiss on Remus's lips. "This afternoon I'll show everyone what you mean to me."

Remus smiled and pushed a stray lock of hair behind Sirius's ear. "You're sure?" he asked.

Sirius simply nodded before kissing him again.

* * *

"Welcome to the third match of the Quidditch season!" the announcer cried out to the school. "It's Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff today, a match brought forward due to the Slytherin team being down four players due to that unfortunate incident in Potions earlier this month."

The crowd cheered as the teams walked out onto the pitch and waved to their respective houses.

"No one really expects Hufflepuff to have a chance in this match but stranger things have happened and they wiped the floor with Ravenclaw back in November…"

Remus sat in the front row of the stands with Peter alongside him and the rest of the Gryffindors crowded around them.

"So when are you two going to win me my money?" Peter asked. His question was only heard by Remus because the crowd was cheering the first points of the match, won by Gryffindor.

"Nice one James!" Remus called out with the rest of his house.

"Remus are you listening to me?" Peter hissed in his ear.

"Not really," Remus replied with a grin. "Why don't you just enjoy the match? We're already winning."

"You're going to deliberately make me lose, aren't you?" Peter muttered. "If you didn't know about the bet you two would be all over each other no matter who was watching."

"What makes you think that?" Remus asked as the Gryffindors groaned in unison because the Hufflepuffs won control of the quaffle.

"You'd do it just to spite me," Peter replied. "You don't want me to win."

Remus rolled his eyes. "We're just getting a bit of our own back," he whispered with a grin. "It's not like the rest of you haven't had a lot of fun at our expense the last couple of years."

"So you're not going to make me lose my money?" Peter asked hopefully.

"Sirius has a plan," Remus replied with a wink.

"What plan?"

"He won't tell me," Remus admitted. "I'll probably find out at the same time as you do."

"And that's another ten points for Gryffindor," the commentator yelled half an hour later. "Gryffindor are now two hundred points in the lead and the Hufflepuffs are going to really have their work cut out for them now."

Remus looked up as Sirius and James did a victory roll in celebration of their joint efforts for the team. He was relieved that they appeared to have put aside their differences for the match and suspected that things would soon be back to normal with the group. "Think we'll win the cup this year?" he asked Peter with a grin. "It'll be the first time we've won it in two years."

"And look at that interception by Sirius Black," the commentator gushed another hour into the match. "What a great bit of flying. Oh no, he's dropped the quaffle. He's not fumbled a move like that in two years."

The Gryffindors gasped as they scanned the air to see who was nearest to catch the lost ball that was currently falling directly towards them.

"And there's no one in sight to catch the quaffle," the commentator yelled. "It's heading straight for the Gryffindor stands and we all know what happens then."

The crowd yelled and whistled as those who followed the game recalled the tradition begun some twenty years before.

"There's not a player in range and the lucky member of the crowd who catches the quaffle will get a kiss from one of the chasers."

The ball landed in the midst of the crowd and Sirius swooped down after it.

"Sirius Black has got the quaffle back and has tossed it back to James Potter," the commentator announced. "He doesn't seem to be leaving the stands though. I can't see what's happening properly from here. Who caught the quaffle? Was it Remus?"

The whispers rippled through the stands until they finally reached the ears of the commentator, who leaned forward over the edge of the stand to see if the whispers were true. "Oh Merlin! Remus Lupin_ was_ the one to catch the quaffle and win the kiss from the chaser and what a kiss he's getting! Sirius Black is hovering on his broom at the edge of the Gryffindor stands and is kissing Remus Lupin. He's _really_ kissing him. Usually when this happens the person in the crowd gets a quick peck and the game continues as normal but – wow! – He doesn't seem to be coming up for air at all. "

"Black get back in the damn game!" Charlene screamed from her own broom.

The crowd whistled and cheered as they watched Gryffindor chaser Sirius Black kissing Remus Lupin as though his life depended on it.

"Hufflepuff scores ten points," McGonagall's voice came over the speaker. "Try to remember you're commentating on the match would you?"

"Who cares about the match?" several people yelled out.

"Black!" Charlene screamed again. "We're going to lose the bloody match if you don't get your tongue out of your boyfriend's mouth this minute!"

"And that's another ten points to Hufflepuff," McGonagall announced.

"Black! If you don't get back in this game I'll send a bludger at you myself!" Charlene waved her bat at him but to no avail. "Potter! Do something!"

"What do you want _me_ to do?" James yelled across at her with a grin.

"Black!" Charlene wailed. "I'll kick you off the team if you don't get back on your broom!"

"Technically he's still on his broom," James pointed out.

"I'll cut you from the team too if you don't make him stop!" Charlene shouted.

"Really Charlie," James laughed. "I never thought you'd be the type to be homophobic." He shook his head and tutted in mock disappointment at his team mate.

"I don't care if Black's gay!" Charlene spluttered. "He can snog every bloke in the school for all I care! As long as he's not doing it in the middle of a match!"

"It's traditional to kiss the spectator who catches the quaffle," James pointed out with a wicked grin.

"Not when they throw it to them on purpose!" Charlene screeched. "I know you did that deliberately Black! I mean it when I say I'll cut you from the team!"

"I think you'll find that that particular threat is pretty much wasted," James commented. "Since being cut from the team means he'll be able to spend more time with Remus, I doubt he'd care that much. Maybe you should try a different tactic?"

Charlene looked thoughtful for a moment before she turned back to face the stands. "I'll give you guys all my chocolate supply from Christmas if you'll get back in the game," she pleaded, adding 'please' as an after thought.

At that Sirius pulled slightly away from Remus and looked up at Charlene. "Tempting, but I think I'll pass. Remus tastes even better than chocolate," he called before turning to kiss Remus again.

"Black!" Charlene screamed. "If you don't get back in the game right now I'll…I'll…I'll curse you with impotency! You ask Mitchell and he'll tell you I'm capable of it!"

Many heads turned from staring at Remus and Sirius at this to look across at the mortified Hufflepuff boy. James laughed and moved closer to Charlene. He leaned close and whispered into her ear.

"Really?" she asked with mild surprise.

"I was surprised too," James admitted with a shrug.

Charlene nodded sharply and turned back to Sirius and Remus who were still locked at the lip. "I'll curse your boyfriend with impotency!" she amended at the top of her lungs, her latest threats bringing Madam Hooch into her vicinity with a harsh warning about remembering that there were children as young as eleven listening to her.

"Gryffindor wins!" McGonagall suddenly called out over the pitch. "Sally Matthews has caught the snitch. Gryffindor wins!"

At that Sirius, who had been hovering on his broom in front of the stands, let the broom drop to the floor as he scrambled into the stand and hugged Remus to him. The rest of the crowd around them whooped and cheered and clapped the two of them on the back.

Someone passed Sirius a bottle of juice and he took a long swig from it before passing it to Remus. "This is thirsty work," he joked. Remus took a drink himself before the bottle vanished back into the crowd and Sirius's lips were on his own again.

"So are you really together?" someone asked.

"Yep!" Sirius replied with a grin although his eyes never left Remus's.

"Definitely," Remus replied.

"It's not a set up so Peter wins the money?" the same voice asked.

"No," Sirius shook his head. "I wouldn't go this far just for a bit of extra cash."

"How far have you gone then Sirius?" someone else asked. No one was leaving the stands, the entertainment from Sirius and Remus was far more interesting than the match had been.

"Well firstly there was that time in the Quidditch supply room when I…" Sirius stopped abruptly as Remus clamped a hand over his mouth.

"I can't believe what I nearly said," said Sirius after Remus had pulled his hand away. He was flushing red with mortification.

"So Remus, what were you two doing in the supply room?" another voice piped up.

"We were making out and Sirius had his hand inside my…" It was Remus's turn to have a hand over his mouth and he turned as red as Sirius was.

"What was in that bottle?" Sirius asked with a glare.

"A truth potion," Lily said with a smirk as she waved the bottle at them.

"Where did you get that?" Sirius asked in surprise.

"Made it for extra credit in Potions," Lily replied. "It's not as powerful as Veritaserum, but good enough for what we needed it for."

"The antidote please?" Remus asked quietly.

"Not yet," Lily said with a wicked grin. "Are you going to tell us what you were doing in the supply room?"

"No," Sirius and Remus replied in unison.

"Maybe I should rephrase that so you _have_ to tell us?" Lily suggested.

"If you do, I'll tell James what you said about him last Halloween," Remus warned.

"You wouldn't! Would you?"

"Do you really want to test me?" Remus asked with a devious grin of his own.

"I guess I probably don't want to know what you two were up to in there," Lily said.

"The rest of us do," a seventh year called out.

"Like we couldn't guess from what they let slip anyway," another laughed.

"Lily, the antidote, now," Remus ordered.

Lily reached into her robes for two small vials, which she passed to Remus and Sirius. Remus swallowed the contents and waited to see whether it had worked.

"So are you two in love?" Lily asked after she returned the empty vials to her pockets.

"No," Remus lied.

"Absolutely not," Sirius added.

"We'll take that as a yes then," Lily replied. "And yes Peter," she turned to the impatient boy who'd been watching the events unfold, "you'll get your winnings now they've been tested with the truth potion. We just had to make sure they didn't know about it before we dosed them."

Peter clapped his hands together with delight and followed after Lily to where Becky was waiting for the results of the test. Gradually the rest of the students followed them leaving Remus and Sirius alone in the stands.

Sirius sat down on the bench and pulled Remus onto his lap.

"Charlie won't really kick you off the team, will she?" Remus asked with a frown.

"We won," Sirius pointed out. "She'll have forgotten everything else besides that by now. And even if she did, James will make captain next year for sure and he'll put me back on it."

Remus breathed a sigh of relief. "Good. I know you love playing and I'd hate for you to lose your place on the team because of me."

"If I had to choose between you and Quidditch, you'd win every time," Sirius told him. "I'm just glad you were concentrating on the game enough to catch the quaffle. For a moment I had a horrible feeling that Peter was going to catch it instead."

"That would have been interesting," Remus laughed. "Would you have kissed him instead?" he teased.

"His face if I did would certainly be something to remember," Sirius laughed. "But I wouldn't kiss him the way I kiss you. I've never kissed anyone the way I kiss you."

"Liar," Remus chided. "You've dated enough girls for me to know that's a lie."

"I'm not lying," Sirius whispered quietly. "I'm not saying I've never kissed anyone else. But when I kiss you, it's like I forget everyone and everything else. There's just you and me, and it feels so right. I can't explain it…"

"You don't have to," Remus replied. "I know."

"We should head back to the castle," Sirius said, without making any effort to move.

"I like it here," Remus whispered. "And I think we've entertained the rest of the students enough for one week."

Sirius grinned in agreement before pulling Remus closer for another kiss, this one far less public than the last.

The End

* * *

A/N: Thank you for reading, and especially to those who have taken the time to leave a review. Some of you who left reviews who I responded to may be wondering why those two little words are residing just above this line. Simply, this last part was initially two parts but I couldn't make my mind up where to split and eventually decided to post it all in one – hence the really long chapter.

I have now started posting a sequel, featuring the Remus, Sirius and Lily doubles arriving to cause trouble. The story is entitled Triple Trouble. If you have enjoyed reading this one and Double Trouble I hope you will considering checking this third story out as well.

I am also posting Once in a Blue Moon which I believe will be my first long potential Remus/Sirius story. It is no longer simply a fifth year fic but is an entirely new AU story. I hope you will consider looking it over even though it has only just been started.

Due to reviewer's requests Triple Trouble will be taking priority over Once in a Blue Moon when it comes to which story I focus on whilst my other two epics are still continuing. Hopefully my Snape and Lupin Origins stories will be concluded fairly soon though and I will just have these two marauder era fics to work on (plus my founders fic prequel of course).


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